MORGAN JESSE LAPPIN

BORN / 1979

LIVES AND WORKS IN / Brooklyn

ABOUT / I started making collage art because it was my way of coming up with designs for a t-shirt company I ran called Daydream Silkscreen which was located in Orange County, NY in around late 2006. As a kid I would visit my grandmother in Queens, NY who’s currently 91 and a holocaust survivor. She had the full World Book Encyclopedia set from the early 70’s. I would skim through the pages, and have always been fascinated with the colors and imagery in those books. So, it really randomly hit me to use those images to make designs for the clothing line we had.

Eventually I became more passionate about collage and in late 2007 I moved to Brooklyn. I started looking for group shows through Craigslist and started doing shows at this place called Niagara Bar in the village. I immediately got hooked, then randomly curated an art show called Collorgy featuring the works of over 40 artists in the middle of Bushwick. Somehow with no experience I turned a crazy artists building into a mad house bringing in around 300 people.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I spend 90% of my art time collecting, cutting, and cataloging images and 10% of the time making the collages. I have a file system with over 100 categories and hundreds of pre cut images. Cutting, collecting, and organizing these images is has become somewhat of an OCD, a way meditation, yet somehow at the same time a source of stress because I am constantly misplacing things. All of this plays a roll when making collage. My method of madness includes my xacto knife and tape. I stick with tape because it allows a piece to continue to evolve. Get it? I stick with tape? You can also catch me doing stand up comedy in front of my building in the nude every Tuesday at 3:42PM.